Reviews websites four times more influential than social media for electronics consumers
Reviews websites are four times more influential on consumer purchasing than social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, according to research from Kaizo PR.
Looking at electronics buying behaviour, the study found that almost half (44 per cent) of consumers said reviews websites helped them decide what to buy, compared to only 12 per cent who are influenced by content on Facebook and five per cent by content on Twitter.
Twenty-one per cent of people said news stories in traditional media affect what they buy.
Specifically looking at consumer technology brands, consumers are more interested in receiving news about PCs and laptops than about mobile phones, cameras or smartphones. 26 per cent of people are interested in news about mobile phone brands; compared to 50 per cent who are interested in hearing about PCs/laptops. Just over a third of people (36 per cent) are interested in news about smartphones, and 30 per cent about cameras.
“We wanted to find out more about the part that social plays in a consumer’s decision to buy. Brands that look at numbers of Likes and expect that to correlate directly to sales aren’t getting the full picture – recent investigations into click farms show just how meaningless Likes can sometimes be,” said Rhodri Harries, managing director of Kaizo.
However, social does have a valuable role to play for some as, although a third of people on Facebook never Like a brand (32 per cent), 22 per cent interact with a brand once a month or more on the social network. Eight per cent of people tweet about a brand once a month or more.
Harries added: “What really works is when brands use Facebook to interact with people who already have a relationship with them and create opportunities for their community to reach out to others – usually not even online.
The survey was conducted in June 2013 with 1,453 UK respondents.